Norfolk Southern’s Lamberts Point Coal Facility is the Northern Hemisphere’s largest facility for loading coal. Located in Norfolk, Virginia, Lamberts Point Pier 6 operates 24/7 and predominately loads metallurgical coal for use in global steel markets. Thanks to recent investments in people and infrastructure, we now have capacity to process even more coal.  

Following the March collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which lead to the closure of the Port of Baltimore, Lamberts Point handled significant additional tons of export coal in the month of April. These additional tonnages are expected to rise during the month of May as more supply chain solutions are executed.

“It takes an incredible amount of coordination to make the entire supply chain work for our customers and Norfolk Southern was ready to meet the challenge,” said John Orr, Chief Operating Officer. “Our balanced strategy and disciplined approach to Operations allows us the agility to serve our customers. The entrepreneurial spirit and partnership clearly establishes NS as the backbone of the U.S. economy. We’re delivering for all stakeholders through this value at Lamberts Point.”

NS was well prepared to handle the increased production demands. Late last year, the Transportation team added a third shift to ramp up production. Starting last November, our Mechanical team increased their maintenance plan to increase the reliability of the facility and ensure it can operate at 100 percent capacity.

This additional capacity gave Lamberts Point the ability to increase spot production by utilizing two loading crews simultaneously in one shift, thereby dramatically increasing our ability to dump more coal. In February, over 830 cars of coal were dumped two days in a row, the most in over a decade.

“We’re getting the right coal, in the right vessel, and at the right time,” said Tom Novitske, Terminal Superintendent. “As a result of the resources we’ve invested in Lamberts Point, we are exceeding the production schedule of many of our customers.”

Our success at Lamberts Point to meet global energy demands has been made possible due to a Team of Teams approach. In addition to the contributions made by Transportation and Mechanical, our Marketing, Network Operations Center, Engineering, and Network Planning and Optimization teams each contributed to help us increase production.

“Our ability to effectively serve the market at this time is really a demonstration of our strategy in action to provide safe, reliable, and resilient service,” said Ed Elkins, Chief Marketing Officer. “This is a 24/7 effort involving numerous individuals and teams from across Norfolk Southern to get the job done for our customers.”